Flying Right Along!

I FINALLY pieced a back for my niece's log cabin quilt.  I don't know what my problem is - I will put a million pieces together to make a quilt top, but if my backing fabric isn't big enough, I screech to a halt at the thought of piecing a backing.  However, my sister is coming for a visit at the beginning of April with my niece and nephew, and I'd love to send my niece's quilt home with them.  I got the back pieced and the quilt sandwiched in about an hour and a half, and have spent several hours hand quilting it so far.

The front of little Cecelia's quilt

The pieced back of Cecelia's quilt - happy to report that I completely used up those scraps in the back!

I've also now received all of my Block Lotto winnings from January, so it is time to PLAY with layout.  I am determined to get these sewn into a top SOONER rather than later - I love them!  I think I'm going to make a few more blocks, though...

And look what I picked up at an auction earlier this week!  I spied this cute little wooden sewing box, which, in reality, isn't in the best shape, but when I opened it up and saw all the wooden spools, I just HAD to have it!

Life is good.

The sun is shining, and the temps are mild.

I have finished reading application files for the season, so my free time is back to being my free time.

My mom is here for a visit.

Lots of fun things are happening at my shop.

Life is GOOD!

(I'm linking up with Oh Scrap!)

Getting into the spirit of things!

I'm that mom who is always too busy to decorate for the holidays, the one who buys the Christmas tree on December 23 (but on the upside, it is usually only half-price by then!).  I promised my kids that it would be different this year.  I still refuse to decorate before December starts, but I'm trying to catch the holiday spirit earlier this year. (and by holiday spirit, I mean decorating spirit.  I believe in holding onto the real "holiday spirit", the spirit of loving and caring for one another, all year long)  So, true to my word, I'm getting started.  I'm teaching a Magic Christmas Stocking class at the shop in a couple of weeks, and a trio of girls from W&L stopped by this week to make some while they were on break from classes.

As I cleaned up our fabric and batting scraps, I got to thinking...what if I made some little stockings, too, for decorating or for giving gift cards?  So, rather than add to my scrap bins, I starting cutting and sewing and before I knew it, I had made 12 mini stockings!!!  I may be slightly addicted.  I still have fabric scraps picked out to make more.

Tomorrow, I plan to put the tree up in my shop window.  I'm pretty sure I'm the only store in town that isn't decorated for the holidays yet.  But usually, I have some vendors who bring in ornaments for sale that I use to decorate the tree, and this year, they are behind schedule.  I can't put up a tree with no ornaments, right?  And I'm too cheap to go out and buy some.  What's a gal to do?  MAKE SOME!

Oh, happy day!  I knew all those plastic thread spools would come in handy!  Using just scraps of ribbon, fabric and beads that I already have on hand, I whipped up 7 ornaments already, and have the fabric strips cut and the paper peeled off the tops/bottoms of the spools to make another 40 or so.  I kept getting interrupted as I did this at work on Small Business Saturday (people are SERIOUS about getting their shopping done! which is GREAT for me, as a shop owner), so I hope to finish them up tomorrow while the shop is closed.

Any other quick and easy ideas for me to decorate using what I have on hand?  I am open to suggestions.  What are YOU doing to decorate this holiday season?